I Love the Illusion: The Life and Career of Agnes Moorehead (26 page)

After a couple of years of doing his one-man show Laughton wanted to
do something different and suggested the “Hell scene” from
Don Juan in
Hell
to Gregory, who also liked the idea. Paul would produce the piece and
Charles would direct. The play begins with the recently-deceased Donna
Ana finding herself, to her chagrin, in Hell rather than in Heaven. This is
jolting to her since she has always believed herself to be a woman of virtue.
She meets up with her former lover, Don Juan, and her father, the
Commander (who is only visiting Hell because he finds Heaven a bore),
who was killed by Juan when he came to defend his daughter’s honor. The
Commander, to the astonishment of his daughter, finds Hell an immensely
satisfying place to spend eternity and much preferable to Heaven, which he
finds stuffy. He also holds no malice against Juan for killing him. Finally
the Devil appears and each expresses his view on the nature and purpose of
existence. When casting the quartette, Laughton maintained that, “we
didn’t necessarily need the best actors, but the best voices in America.”
Certainly he and Paul were successful on all counts.

How did Paul and Charles come to the conclusion that Agnes was the
best actress to play the part? Well, she wasn’t the first choice. According to
Elsa Lanchester the original choice was Madeleine Carroll, the cool blonde
heroine of Hitchcock’s
The 39 Steps.
Carroll was eliminated, according to
Paul, because she didn’t process the sense of drama that the character needed.
At one point Fredric March and his actress wife, Florence Eldridge, were
considered as a package; March as Juan and Eldridge as Donna Ana. But
that was eventually discarded. Laughton was also pushing Elsa. “Charles
wanted Elsa,” recalls Paul Gregory, “but I thought her voice was all wrong
and that she possessed no romantic quality.” As gently as he could, he
persuaded Charles not to cast Elsa. The aged character actress Beulah Bondi
was also considered, but ruled out as unacceptable due to her inability to
perform as the 27-year-old Donna Ana. Paul Gregory believed Agnes was
right for the part because “she was bigger than life and could convey
womanhood, rejection and love.” Laughton perhaps summed it up best of
all. “She is with us because Anna has to change from an old wizened woman
of 77 to a young lady of 27. The actress will only have her voice to convince
the audience of this transition — Aggie will do it.” Hedda Hopper later
asked Paul Gregory why he chose Agnes for the part of Donna Ana, and
Paul replied, “The answer is simple. First, I consider her one of the very
finest actresses in show business. She’s extremely cooperative.”

The other members cast were also inspirations. There would be no doubt
that Laughton would be perfect as the Devil. But some have asked, why
Charles Boyer? He was a fine actor, but with a heavy French accent; Don
Juan is Spanish. On the other hand, Don Juan is a great lover and Boyer’s
screen persona was that of the great lover. In reality, Boyer was hardly the
caricature of the French lover; he was totally devoted to his wife and when
she died in 1978, he quietly put his house in order and committed suicide.
“Boyer is a master of the tirade,” recalled Laughton, “and as such is invaluable
to our play — not every actor can handle that difficult of dramatic speech.”
Gregory concurred, “Charles had great facility for the written language.”
The Commander is often a comic character with certain Col. Blimp-type
stereotypes. Sir Cedric Hardwicke, according to Laughton, “could speak an
author’s lines as if they were fresh from his own brain.” Gregory also recalls
Hardwicke as a man of great humor and warmth; both traits he felt were
called for in this role.

Agnes’ reasons for accepting the part of Donna Ana are clear. First, it was
a prestigious production with actors she respected. Second, and perhaps
the primary motivator was that it gave her an opportunity to be more
glamorous than she was usually allowed to be in films. “I sometimes
wonder how they saw me in such a glamorous role for usually I am relegated
to those dreary, drab characters that are completely void of charm and
beauty, though I must say they are usually the meatiest roles to play.
Nevertheless I was complimented to be their choice for Donna Ana — they
have my undying gratitude.”

It was believed that the public might turn out to see such an impressive
cast, but how would they react to such high-minded material? Agnes had
the idealized opinion that the theatre had an obligation to be more than a
“place of amusement.” She felt that audiences would respond to intellectual
material which, “widened their sympathies and broadened their intellects
and sweetened their hearts.” She believed it was a worthwhile experiment.

For Gregory and Laughton, it was important to keep the economics of
such a venture as low as possible. No Dali-type recreations of Hell for this
show. The set would be simple. Laughton would have the four actors sit on
high stools, with reading stands in front of them, and dressed in evening
clothes from their own wardrobes. The tour would involve only six people:
the four actors, a stage manager, and a crewman. According to Paul
Gregory, Agnes “insisted” that Robert Gist be made the stage manager
because she wanted to “keep him on a short leash.” This was granted and
Gist did a credible job. The use of the reading stands with scripts propped
on them, with the actors turning the pages, gave the illusion that the actors
were reading. This was not the case; in fact, the actors had all memorized
their lines prior to rehearsals. The pages were turned to relieve the eyes of
the audience, for with so little movement from the actors on the stage it was
felt the audience could become tired watching them so intently. Movement
of the actors, or rather the lack of it, was important. Charles believed they
must not move except for effect.

Boyer, Laughton, Paul Gregory, Hardwicke, and
Agnes during the first run of
Don Juan in
Hell.

Don Juan in Hell
would formally
open on February 1, 1951 in
Claremont, California, but a “dress
rehearsal” was held a few days prior
in Hollywood before an invited
audience. From November 1950
thru early January 1951, Agnes
would play the role of Parthy
Hawks in the color MGM remake
of
Show Boat.
While shooting the
picture by day, she and the rest of
the
Don Juan
company would get
together to rehearse at night.
Rehearsals generally went well and
the actors bonded. Agnes called
Laughton, “a big bear with a big
pink plush heart.” But it’s not that there weren’t any problems. According
to Paul Gregory, Charles wasn’t sure of Agnes’ stage technique so he spent
“weeks” working with her. He recalls that Charles strived to make Agnes
become “emotionally involved” rather than relying on “phony” tricks such
as a British accent she initially affected for her character.

Show Boat
was one of MGM’s major films of 1951. It was assigned to the
studio’s most prestigious musical producer, Arthur Freed, and lavishly cast.
In the pivotal role of Julie, the studio originally wanted Judy Garland, but
by the time the film went into production, Judy had been fired from
MGM. The new head of MGM, Dore Schary, wanted Dinah Shore. “He
talked to her about doing it and actually promised it to her,” Freed would
recall, “but she was wrong for the part. I sent for Dinah, ‘Dinah,’ I said, ‘I’d
love to do something with you, but you’re not a whore, and that’s what the
part is.’ ” Ava Gardner eventually landed the role. Joe E. Brown was cast as
Cap’n Andy Hawks, Parthy’s husband, with Agnes’ good friend Kathryn
Grayson cast as their daughter, Magnolia, who is wooed by a riverboat gambler,
Gaylord Ravenal, played by Howard Keel. The film was expertly directed
by George Sidney and included the great score by Jerome Kern and Oscar
Hammerstein II, including “Ol’ Man River” performed by William
Warfield playing Joe. His rendition was marvelous, but didn’t overshadow
Paul Robeson’s in the 1936 film version produced by Universal. All in all,
$2.4 million was spent on this film and it shows with carefully constructed
sets and lavish costumes. The film would more than make back its cost,
grossing well over $8 million and becoming one of the biggest hits of 1951.

Don Juan in Hell
had its first tryout in the small California town of
Claremont. While there rehearsing, Laughton went into a deep depression
exasperated by a terrible case of nerves. He became convinced that the show
was going to be a disaster. Over drinks one night he told Gist, “I’ve
destroyed these actors. I’ve fucked up their careers.” He almost broke his
health by spending up to twenty-hours per day on the show. Boyer asked
him if he ever rested. “Why rest?” replied Laughton. “There’s all eternity to
rest in.” His dedication was total and according to one biographer,
“Laughton took pains over every word, every sentence, and every nuance”
of the show.

The show opened in Claremont on January 27, 1951. Paul Gregory sent
a wire individually to each cast member. To Agnes, he wrote: “I cannot
begin to tell you how deeply I cherish all that you have contributed toward
this idea which has captured all of us.” That evening, Laughton came out

first to warm up the audience. He explained how Shaw had written the play
fifty years before and how it was not usually performed by companies which
staged
Man and Superman
— but that it stood alone and could be appreciated
as a solo piece. He also went into the Don Juan legend. After this brief
introduction he would leave the stage for a moment and then reemerge in
the company of the other actors all carrying big green folios which they
placed on their music stands. The covers would open and the play would
commence. Two hours later the play concluded and the results were electric.
The preview audience was small (according to Elsa Lanchester, only forty
people attended), but those fortunate few had witnessed great theatre. The
reviews confirmed this.
Variety
proclaimed it “one of the most exciting
experiences of this and any other season.” The First Drama Quartette (as
they called themselves, coined by Paul Gregory) was off and running. They
would zigzag across the United States and into Canada. They played in
small and large cities at universities and colleges and in high school auditoriums
and coliseums. The show would become a great success due to the genius
of Paul Gregory. As Elsa Lanchester put it, “It was his sheer invention to
book tours all over the country and be hailed in every town — and then go
into New York.” Paul believed this put the New York critics on the spot. If
they panned a show, with the rest of the country embracing it, it would
expose them to the criticism of being highbrow snobs. But, with
Don Juan,
it really didn’t matter. The New York critics would be expected to praise
such an intellectual theatre of the mind; the real triumph was that critics
and audiences everywhere from Peoria to Shreveport, Salt Lake City to
Baltimore, loved the show. The cast traveled by bus, automobile, train
and occasionally plane. To say they covered a great deal of mileage is an
understatement. Here is their itinerary just for the month of February: